''Memories Don't Die'' (stylized in
all caps
In typography, all caps (short for "all capitals") refers to text or a font in which all letters are capital letters, for example: "THIS TEXT IS IN ALL CAPS". All caps may be used for emphasis (for a word or phrase). They are commonly seen in ...
) is the second
studio album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
by Canadian rapper
Tory Lanez
Daystar Shemuel Shua Peterson (born July 27, 1992), known professionally as Tory Lanez, is a Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter, and convicted felon. He received initial recognition from the mixtape ''Conflicts of My Soul: The 416 Story'', rel ...
. It was released on March 2, 2018 through
Mad Love Records and
Interscope Records
Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture with Atlantic Records of Warner Mus ...
.
The production on the album was handled by multiple producers including
OG Parker
Joshua Isaih "OG" Parker (born October 27, 1993), is an American record producer from Atlanta. He is currently signed to Quality Control Music and has been with the label since 2014. OG Parker has produced for artists including Migos, Chris Brow ...
,
Smash David
Samuel David Jimenez, professionally known as Smash David, is an American record producer and songwriter. He produced Big Sean's " Bounce Back" and " Pills & Automobiles" by Chris Brown from the ''Heartbreak on a Full Moon'' album.
Early life ...
, Play Picasso,
AraabMuzik
Abraham Orellana (born June 16, 1989), better known as his stage name AraabMuzik ( ; stylized as araabMUZIK), is an American record producer and DJ. He made a name for himself by performing beats and instrumentals live and in real time on a Ak ...
,
Cashmere Cat
Magnus August Høiberg (born 29 November 1987), known professionally as Cashmere Cat, is a Norwegian DJ, record producer, songwriter and musician. He is best known for producing songs for artists including Kanye West, The Kid Laroi, Selena Gomez ...
, Happy Perez and
C-Sick
Charles Dumazer (born January 10, 1991), professionally known as C-Sick , is a Grammy-nominated French-American record producer from Chicago, Illinois. He participated in his first beat battle at the age of 17 and became the 2008 Chicago Big Tun ...
among others. The album also features
guest appearance
In show business, a guest appearance is the participation of an outsider performer (such as a musician or actor) in an event such as a music record or concert, show, etc., when the performer does not belong to the regular band, cast, or other p ...
s by
Future
The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ...
,
Nav,
50 Cent
Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor, and businessman. Born in the South Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, Jackson began pursuing a musical career in 2000, when he produced ...
,
Wiz Khalifa
Cameron Jibril Thomaz (born September 8, 1987), better known by his stage name Wiz Khalifa, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and actor. He released his debut album, ''Show and Prove'', in 2006 and signed to Warner Bros. Records in 200 ...
and
Fabolous
John David Jackson (born November 18, 1977), better known by his stage name Fabolous, is an American rapper. Raised in Brooklyn, he first gained recognition while still a senior in high school, when he performed live on American music executive ...
among others.
''Memories Don't Die'' was supported by four
singles
Singles are people not in a committed relationship.
Singles may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series
* ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe
* ''Singles'' ...
: "Shooters", "Skrt Skrt" ,"Real Thing" and "Hypnotized". The album received generally mixed reviews from
music critics
Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...
but was a commercial success. The album debuted at number three on the US
''Billboard'' 200 chart, earning 54,000
album-equivalent unit
The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditi ...
s in its first week.
Background and promotion
On June 14, 2017, Tory Lanez confirmed that his second album was "90% completed" via a tweet on
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
.
The album's completion was announced by Lanez on August 2, 2017.
On October 5, 2017, Lanez announced his second album's title.
On August 11, 2017, Lanez was featured in an interview with ''HotNewHipHop'' about his album's theme, by stating
[
On February 9, 2018, Lanez unveiled the album's cover art and tracklist.]
On January 1, 2017, Lanez released two mixtapes: ''Chixtape IV'' and ''The New Toronto 2'' which were promoted as the prelude for his second album.
Singles
''Memories Don't Die'' was supported by four singles
Singles are people not in a committed relationship.
Singles may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series
* ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe
* ''Singles'' ...
. The album's lead single, "Shooters" was released for streaming and digital download on September 22, 2017. A month later, the music video was released online. The single missed the Hot 100 but managed to peak at number 19 on the US Bubbling Under the Hot 100
Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles (also known as Bubbling Under the Hot 100) is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The chart lists the top songs that have not yet charted on the main ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Chart ...
chart. The song also peaked at number 68 on the Canadian Hot 100
The Canadian Hot 100 is a music industry record chart in Canada for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. The Canadian Hot 100 was launched on the issue dated March 31, 2007, and is currently the standard record chart in Canada; a n ...
chart. The album's second single, "Skrt Skrt" was released on September 28, 2017. The song also peaked at number 96 on the Canadian Hot 100
The Canadian Hot 100 is a music industry record chart in Canada for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. The Canadian Hot 100 was launched on the issue dated March 31, 2007, and is currently the standard record chart in Canada; a n ...
chart. The album's third single, "Real Thing" featuring Future
The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ...
was released on October 13, 2017. The song peaked at number 71 on the Canadian Hot 100
The Canadian Hot 100 is a music industry record chart in Canada for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. The Canadian Hot 100 was launched on the issue dated March 31, 2007, and is currently the standard record chart in Canada; a n ...
chart.
Promotional singles
The first promotional single, "I Sip" was released on November 16, 2017, shortly after premiering on Zane Lowe
Alexander Zane Reid Lowe (born 7 August 1973) is a New Zealand radio DJ, live DJ, record producer, and television presenter.
After an early career in music creation, production and DJing, he moved to the UK in 1997. He came to prominence thro ...
's Beats 1
Apple Music 1, previously branded as Beats 1, is a 24/7 music radio station owned and operated by Apple Inc. It is accessible through iTunes or the Apple Music app on a computer, smartphone or tablet, smart speaker (such as the Apple HomePod), ...
radio. The song peaked at number 79 on the Canadian Hot 100
The Canadian Hot 100 is a music industry record chart in Canada for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. The Canadian Hot 100 was launched on the issue dated March 31, 2007, and is currently the standard record chart in Canada; a n ...
chart. The second promotional single, "B.I.D" was released on February 15, 2018, following the same roll-out as the former. The single missed the Hot 100 but managed to peak at number four on the US Bubbling Under the Hot 100
Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles (also known as Bubbling Under the Hot 100) is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The chart lists the top songs that have not yet charted on the main ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Chart ...
chart. The song also peaked at number 46 on the Canadian Hot 100
The Canadian Hot 100 is a music industry record chart in Canada for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. The Canadian Hot 100 was launched on the issue dated March 31, 2007, and is currently the standard record chart in Canada; a n ...
chart and number 85 on the UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
respectively.
Other songs
On February 9, 2018, three tracks that were cut from the album – "March 2nd", "More Than Friends" and "Leaning", the latter two both featuring PartyNextDoor
Jahron Anthony Brathwaite (born July 3, 1993), known professionally as PartyNextDoor (stylized as PARTYNEXTDOOR), is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and record producer.
PartyNextDoor was the first artist signed to Drake's OVO Sound record label ...
, was released by Lanez for his fans.[
]
Critical reception
''Memories Don't Die'' received mixed reviews from critics. At Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, ''Memories Don't Die'' received an average score of 46 based on five reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Kassandra Guagliardi of ''Exclaim!
''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...
'' concluded that the album has "a few quality tracks, but overall it misses the mark on classic appeal." In a scathing negative review, Ben Beaumont-Thomas of ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' described the album as an "astonishingly hackneyed, aggressively chameleonic LP", while comparing the album to the work of Lanez's contemporaries: "As Migos
Migos () is an American hip hop trio from Lawrenceville, Georgia, founded in 2008. The group was originally composed of Southern rappers Quavo, Takeoff, and Offset. Quavo is from Athens, Georgia; Offset and Takeoff were born and raised in Law ...
or 2 Chainz
Tauheed K. Epps (born September 12, 1977), known professionally as 2 Chainz (or Tity Boi), is an American rapper. Born and raised in College Park, Georgia, he initially gained recognition as one-half of the Southern hip hop duo Playaz Circle, al ...
ably demonstrate, rapping about racks and whips isn’t necessarily dull, but you need to have wit, nimble hooks and idiosyncratic flow, none of which Lanez possesses. He’s so profoundly unoriginal you start to wonder if he is actually a rudimentary Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...
AI project who has been fed the RapCaviar playlist and given an edgy beard. But Lanez ultimately doesn’t pass the Turing test, and his jack-of-all-trades versatility leaves him the master of none."
Sheldon Pearce of ''Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...
'' commented that ''Memories Don't Die'' is "a record full of crude imitations of every remotely bankable contemporary R&B or rap song", criticising the originality of the album: "Nearly everything he raps on ''Memories Don’t Die'' is something you’ve heard before, performed more ably elsewhere, and the few lines that aren’t are unbelievably simple-minded or straight-up witless."
Commercial performance
In his home country of Canada, ''Memories Don't Die'' debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart
The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocea ...
, earning 8,000 album-equivalent unit
The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditi ...
s in its first week. This became Tory Lanez's first number one debut in Canada. In the United States, ''Memories Don't Die'' debuted at number three on the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart, earning 54,000 album-equivalent units (including 15,000 copies as pure album sales) in its first week of release. This became Tory Lanez's second US top-ten debut on the chart. The album also accumulated a total of 54 million on-demand audio streams for the set’s tracks that week. In its second week, the album dropped to number 16 on the chart, earning an additional 23,000 units.
Track listing
Credits adapted from the album's liner notes and Tidal
Tidal is the adjectival form of tide.
Tidal may also refer to:
* ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple
* Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim
* TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music
* Tidal (servic ...
.
Notes
* signifies a co- producer
* "Memories" and "Don't Die" are stylized in uppercase letters. For example, "Memories" is stylized as "MEMORIES".
* "Hypnotized" features background vocals by Kennedi Lykken
Sample credits
* "Skrt Skrt" contains interpolations from "Dat Sexy Body
"Dat Sexy Body" is a song recorded by Jamaican deejay Sasha. It was released in 1998, however didn't gain chart success until five years after its release. The song was composed by Sasha and Anthony Kelly who also handled production of the song u ...
", written by Karen Chin
Karen Chin is an American paleontologist and taphonomist who is considered one of the world's leading experts in coprolites.
Biography
Chin loved studying living things as a child, and enjoyed memorizing the names of species that she read about ...
and Anthony Kelly.
* "Benevolent" contains excerpts from "Sounds Like a Love Song", written by Douglas Gibbs and Ralph Johnson, as performed by Bobby Glenn.
* "Hate to Say" contains excerpts and a sample from " You & I", written by Julian Bunetta, John Ryan and Jamie Scott
Jamie Scott (born James Christopher Needle; 12 February 1984) is an Ivor Novello Award winning English singer, songwriter and producer.
Career Songwriting
As a writer and producer Scott has sold over 100 million albums, 50 million singles, has ...
, as performed by One Direction
One Direction, often shortened to 1D, are an English-Irish pop boy band formed in London in 2010. The group are composed of Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, and previously Zayn Malik until his departure from the gr ...
.
* "Pieces" contains portions and a sample from " Shape of My Heart", written by Gordon Sumner and Dominic Miller
Dominic James Miller (born 21 March 1960) is an Argentine-born guitarist. With much of his career as a sideman and guitarist for singer Sting (musician), Sting, he has also released several solo albums.
Career
Miller was born in Hurlingham, Bue ...
, as performed by Sting
Sting may refer to:
* Stinger or sting, a structure of an animal to inject venom, or the injury produced by a stinger
* Irritating hairs or prickles of a stinging plant, or the plant itself
Fictional characters and entities
* Sting (Middle-eart ...
.
Personnel
Credits adapted from the album's liner notes[ and ]Tidal
Tidal is the adjectival form of tide.
Tidal may also refer to:
* ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple
* Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim
* TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music
* Tidal (servic ...
.[
Musicians
* Daniel Gonzalez – instrumentation , programming
* ]Daystar Peterson
Daystar Shemuel Shua Peterson (born July 27, 1992), known professionally as Tory Lanez, is a Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter, and convicted felon. He received initial recognition from the mixtape ''Conflicts of My Soul: The 416 Story'', rel ...
– instrumentation , programming
* Carl Caruso – instrumentation , programming
* Charles Dumazer – instrumentation , programming
* Happy Perez – instrumentation , programming , guitar
* Mansa Evans – instrumentation , programming
* Dr. Zeuz – instrumentation
* Wallace Jefferson – instrumentation
* Christian Lou – instrumentation , programming
* BobbyMadeTheBeat – instrumentation , programming
* Sebastian Rompotis – instrumentation , programming
* Smash David – instrumentation , programming
* OG Parker
Joshua Isaih "OG" Parker (born October 27, 1993), is an American record producer from Atlanta. He is currently signed to Quality Control Music and has been with the label since 2014. OG Parker has produced for artists including Migos, Chris Brow ...
– instrumentation , programming
* Edgar Ferrera – instrumentation , programming
* Larry Cooper, Jr. – instrumentation , programming
* Sergio Romero – instrumentation , programming
* Nick Fouryn – instrumentation , programming
* Benny Blanco
Benjamin Joseph Levin (born March 8, 1988), known professionally as Benny Blanco (stylized in all lowercase), is an American record producer. He is the recipient of the 2013 Hal David Starlight Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is also ...
– instrumentation , programming , keyboards
* Cashmere Cat
Magnus August Høiberg (born 29 November 1987), known professionally as Cashmere Cat, is a Norwegian DJ, record producer, songwriter and musician. He is best known for producing songs for artists including Kanye West, The Kid Laroi, Selena Gomez ...
– instrumentation , programming , keyboards
* Sean Myer – instrumentation , programming , keyboards
* Danny Morris – instrumentation , programming
* Abraham Orellana – instrumentation , programming
Technical
* Johann Chavez – mixing , engineering
* Daniel Gonzalez – mixing , engineering
* Raymond Martinez – engineering assistance
* Lucas "Lowkis" Rompotis – mixing assistance , engineering assistant
* Chris Gehringer
Chris Gehringer (born May 27, 1962) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered recordings such as Gwen Stefani's '' Love. Angel. Music. Baby.'' (2004), Rihanna's '' Loud'' (2010), Lady Gaga's '' Born This Way'' (2011) and Drake' ...
– mastering
* Will Quinnell – mastering
* Jordan "Trouble" Bacchus – engineering
* David Schwerkolt – engineering assistance
* Mark "Spike" Stent
Mark "Spike" Stent (born 3 August 1965) is an English record producer and mixing engineer who has worked with many international artists including Madonna, Marshmello, U2, Beyoncé, Björk, Depeche Mode, Echo & The Bunnymen, Grimes, Ed Sheeran ...
– mixing
* Michael Freeman – mixing assistance
* Geoff Swan – mixing assistance
Production
* Andrew Luftman – production coordination
* Seif Hussain – production coordination
* Astrid Taylor – production coordination
* Sarah Shelton – production coordination
* Sascha Stone Guttfreund – production coordination
* Philip Payne – production coordination
* Troy Dubrowsky – production coordination
* Raymond Martinez – production coordination
* Soffia Yen – production coordination
Additional personnel
* Troy Dubrowsky – coordinator
* Joshua "Mid Jordan" Farias – creative director
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
References
{{Authority control
2018 albums
Tory Lanez albums
Interscope Records albums
Albums produced by C-Sick
Albums produced by Happy Perez
Albums produced by Benny Blanco
Albums produced by Cashmere Cat
Albums produced by AraabMuzik
Albums produced by OG Parker